As many of you might know the St Jude's auction ranks right up there with opening day of elk and Christmas for me. Also many of you know that I love to buy and trade on the classifieds, but having had too many bows to count I have never had one custom made just for "me" ... well this year that all changed thanks to the generous donation of Jared Marinelli of Journeyman Archery.

I was the winning bidder and was soon contacted by Jared to get the process started. He offered to send me a couple of risers along with some limbs so that we could truly work on a custom bow that fit just right. Again I thought that was extremely generous of him. The risers and limbs arrived in a bullet proof wooden box ...  Jared's risers are 14 1/2 " and he sent me limbs to make a 60" bow, my length of choice. One riser also had a sample of his stippling work which was very nice.  The bow shot very very well and I was so glad he sent both risers, on one I liked the width and the other the palm swell. The 14 1/2 " riser ends up with my little pinky on my bow hand resting just on the top of the lower limb, it feels very comfortable. ..

       

Very Nice Ken! Looking forward to the rest of the pic's.

Jared has been donating bows to St Jude auction every since I've been a member and I'm guessing even longer. That truly says a lot for a fellow to donate their time and skills for such a great cause. Jared is indeed a great person as well as a great bowyer.

The great thing about the Journeyman bows is that they shoot even better than they look, and that baby looks pretty darn good. That is one fine bow!!!  

Awesome!  Can't wait to see more pics and a shootin report!  I put in a few bids myself but ultimately had to go for the Java Man bow.  Hats off to Jared for his generosity on the build and hats off to you for your donation!

After shooting the two risers it allowed me to get a feel for the weight and the wrist styles. I decided to go with a high wrist and to add weight I went with Phenolic for the riser. Later Jared suggested some wood to be added and an interesting checkered design that I really like.  He added stippling and asked if I was interested in adding some carving too           since I go by "Elkken" on TG he showed me some samples of elk antler carving that really looks cool so I ended up with stippling and carving ... again Jared's generosity is awesome   :noteworthy:

   

I chose quilted maple for limb vaneers and Jared matched that with riser wood .. tips are phenolic and maple

 

 

Well that pic alone shows that she is definitely a dandy! Congrats on your new bow.

Very nice Ken!

 That is a good looking bow!

   

That's sweet!!

Jake

Killer bow  

Wow!!!

That is one sexy bow

Oh my!

Wow, what a great looking bow!!! Congrats!

Holy Smokes!  What a Beautiful Bow !!

nice bow

Ken, a beautiful specimen!

Congrats to you and the kids.      

What a beautiful bow! If it shoots half as good as it looks you'll have a killer in your hands this fall!